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When a PDA is better than a GBA for Gaming
An anonymous reader writes "Conventional wisdom says that it's silly to buy a $300+ PDA to play games when a $100 Game Boy Advance SP is going to be better at it. At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation 2. FiringSquad just posted an ASUS PDA review that focuses on some of the games that only a PDA has the horsepower for, and helps readers figure out how to pick out the right PDA."
If all you want is portable games, buy a portable game device (GBA, NeoGeoPocket, etc)
If you want other functionality, buy a PDA.
Period.
Why is this an issue?
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"At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation 2"
Are you kidding? I see that all the time! On slashdot, even.
Besides, who only spends a grand on a gaming machine?
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
I can sit in the back of a crowded presentation at work, or in the back of my math class, with a PDA, doing various things, but if I'm seen sitting there using a GBA, that's somehow "disrespectful". Even though either way I'm clearly not paying attention.
This is why TI Calculator games are the most wonderful thing in the world. No one is going to see anything odd about me pressing buttons on a calculator in a large lecture hall.
If it doesn't have a cell phone built in, it'll be in a scrap heap soon.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
My impression is that every time person X buys anything person Y doesn't have (console, PC, graphics card, game) person Y insists that it's silly...
...well, generally. While PC and Console games do overlap, there is enough of a difference in the software library to choose one over the other (or just choose both!). PDAs are clunky. I'd never buy a piece of portable electronics that expensive...my cell phones live a harsh life. A $100 gameboy getting dropped onto concrete is sad but acceptable...a $300 PDA is not.
Blar.
The only thing I find funny is that the same people who think nothing of spending $3000 rather than $1000 on their computer because it's a "gaming rig", even though a console "gaming rig" would cost maybe $150...
are the same people who bitch endlessly about the fact that you can't get a Macintosh for $1000, and to get a passable mac you have to pay $2000 or so.
Now, why is it that the amount of money you spend on your gaming machine is immaterial, but if you have to spend more than $1200 or so on the machine you actually do work and stuff on, well, that's just unacceptable? Is the only reason that they bitch about the Mac price is that it doesn't play games?
(Yes, I realize most people just don't like macs. I'm specifically complaining here about the "who'd spend that much" crowd,not everyone who uses wiows..)
The problem with this, is that Microsoft has been using its endless bags of cash and an unfair monopoly status to swing this much weight into a new market. If they weren't able to lose hundreds of millions of dollars to do this, it would have never happened. Online console gaming would still be largely non-existent. Just something to think about: is Microsoft good in this case, or are they bad?
I dunno if you actually played any of those hdtv games for xbox, but I was unimpressed by it.
I bought the kit for pushing component video out of an x-box and took it over to a friend's house who has a 56" Sony HDTV projection screen. I cranked it up to 1080i and pretty much the only thing I saw was that it slowed down. The loading screen with the matrix letters were crisper, but that was it. I noticed no change in-game other than it being slower (noticably chunky in spots that were smooth in standard resolution).
This doesn't really surprise me, though, as all an xbox has is a slightly upgraded geforce3. That card doesn't exactly have an amazing fill rate -- it's 2 generations old. My Radeon 9700, however, pushes 1600x1200 in games quite well. Granted, it cost $200 more than the entire xbox, but that's the price if you want high-res graphics. Just don't be saying that 1080i on an xbox touches my computer.
Everyone whines about cost.. I say get a real job and don't worry about it. Gaming is a hobby. Hobbies take money. Some people work on their car and buy 20" lift kits. Some people fly remote control airplanes. I pimp the hell out of my computer. I buy lights, I buy fans, I drill holes in the case, and I buy damned expensive video cards, and I don't complain about it (well, maybe a little, but I still buy 'em)
I guess it's all about how you want to spend your money. I work hard; I play hard.
At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation 2.
It heavily depends on what you can do with it besides playing games. Ever tried to write a letter with a PS2? Or run a database? No, modding the XBOX to run Linux does not count. Truth is, it is silly to buy a PC just to play games. But the PC will still be with you a few years from now. And it might even be useful. And you can do more with it than with a console.
The same holds true for PDAs. If you want to store your contacts, adresses and events, a relatively cheap Palm device will do nicely. If you want to have insane multimedia capabilites and all those nice little extras, you want a PocketPC -- which costs about 3 times more (YMMV). And those devices can also play games.
But can the GBA store your appointments?
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
if you want a good mouse for gaming.. check out Logitech mx700 you can't beat logitech for mice. and they will soon have that mouse in bluetooth w/ a sweet keyboard combo. Logitech(R) diNovo(TM) Media Desktop(TM)
Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
yup, and the price for a 60 inches 16:9 HDTV is?
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games
I might. I was able to put together a very capable system for less than half that (good enough to play PlanetSide without any problems). I guess the price might be somewhere near $1,000 if you absolutely had to have the best graphics card available, but for me (and many others, I suspect) it's an unncessary luxury. 250 fps? Please. Who cares? As long as it does at least 30-40 fps most of the time, the rest is all surplus.
Except that it never works. That's what Sega Game Channel was, that's what Intro Distro was, that's what the eReader is. People won't buy it if it has a limited life, and people think of things they download as impermanent. For some reason, media matters at one level or another.
Granted, Sega had bigger infrastructure costs than you'd have these days, and the nostalgia is stronger now than it ever has been before. But really, for just how long do you think people will extoll the virtues of Dragon Warrior 1 after they actually start playing it again? I found a copy and a working NES at funco land for $8 together, and I shugged and what-the-helled it.
I got into the first dungeon, and opened the locked trunk that had the key to get me through to the other side. As my inventory was full I could not take the key. I dropped an item, looked in the box again, and it was gone. I fought my way back to ground and then back down; still gone. I'd have to recreate 6 hours of gameplay over that I didn't know there was an inventory limit, much less that trunk contents were a one-time-only grab.
Granted, many games do hold up to the test of time - crysalis, koei games, et cetera - but the market is still too slim.
$10 "greatest hits" discs will always win. Besides, that's $2/rom, and you can take it to friends' houses. Good enough?
StoneCypher is Full of BS
I think it's going to fail, for the same reason that the GP32, the Cybiko, the Wonderswan, and the other parade of near misses have.
None of the above are fully blown, high-end palm PDAs. Please note that Tapwave has prized the Zodiac comparately to other Palm devices of similar spec. Additionally, it's a game device.
1) Nobody's ever heard of the damn thing. You're on slashdot and people are all "the what?"
On the other hand, just about anyone who has heard of n-gage has heard of the zodiac, as it's mentioned in just about every news report on n-gage.
2) Tapwave can't undersell the hardware like Nintendo can. $300 for a portable gaming machine has never gone over well, and it never will.
Underselling hardware is a myth. Only microsoft, out of all game device manufacturers, has actually undersold entertainment hardware.
3) This thing isn't getting a game library of any real size.
Too early to say. In addition to major companies starting to be interested in it, it is a very open platform where basically anyone can make software. This means ports of open sourced games, emulators, and also hobbyist games.
4) I can buy a tapwave at: (retail chains)
You can, early next year.
In any case you're missing the point in several ways. Zodiac is not a heads-on gameboy competitor. It's not a heads-on n-gage competitor. Heck, it's not even a heads-on PSP competitor. It's something new.
"My guess is that a good 50% or more of PDA users bought the PDA for playing games."
My guess is that he's wrong. Totally wrong. Buying a PDA for games doesn't seem to make much sense at all. The fact that are games is a nice distant second use, but for most people, I doubt this has any revalence at all. Wall Streeters playing Puzzle Bobble on Lunch? hmm, maybe, but I wouldn't think so.